Publisher: Liveright (W. W. Norton)
Release Date: September 26, 2018
Price: $27.95
Creator: David Small
Format: 400 pgs., B&W, 7"x9", Hardcover
ISBN: 978-0-8714-0315-5
Age Rating: N/A
ICv2 Rating: 4.5 Stars out of 5
David Small’s previous graphic work, Stitches, was an autobiographical book, a memoir of youth. His main career is illustrating children’s books, and he’s brilliant at it, having won a variety of awards. So, it took him a while to do another graphic piece. This one, a serious and somewhat weird tale of growing up with a strange family situation, is gripping, but may appeal more to adults than to teens, even though the central character is a teen. Teens actually going through the trials of adolescence may be too close to the bad parts of the story to enjoy reading it. There is also the difficulty that some parts of the story are never resolved, and that might be unsettling to younger readers.
The main character in this 1950s story, Russell, has a mother who ran off with his father’s former best friend, a father who has little connection to family or to reality, and mostly a bunch of school acquaintances, rather than friends. His only apparent friend isn’t what he seems, and things go horribly wrong in a wave of suspicions and accusations, as his friend’s life crumbles. Russell’s clumsy attempts to make things "right" go badly, but believably. Teens don’t always do the right thing in the real world, nor do they in this story.
This is truly a novel in graphic form, rather than a series of comics, and should be shown off as graphic literature. Adults and some older teens will be the primary audience for this book, and it belongs in library collections.
--Nick Smith: Library Technician, Community Services, for the Pasadena Public Library in California.